Saturday, June 30, 2012

Who Has A. H. Hirsch?

In my recent ebook, The Best Bourbon You'll Never Taste,I wrote that while I assume some bars still pour A. H. Hirsch Reserve Straight Bourbon Whiskey, I can't name any. Here are two.

Since how much they have is unknown and there is no way for them to get more, this information may already be obsolete.

Here in Chicago, Delilah's (2771 N. Lincoln Ave) still has it, or did as of the last time I was there, maybe a month ago. They have the 16-year-old gold foil.

Today I learned that The Eveleigh Club in Los Angeles (8752 W. Sunset Blvd) has the 16-year-old red wax, which is even more rare. They were using it to mix cocktails!

They also have Hirsch 22-year-old rye but, as we all know, that's a completely different animal and not from the Schaefferstown, Pennsylvania, distillery where the A. H. Hirsch Bourbon was made.

According to the web site Thirsty in L.A., the Hirsch whiskeys were supplied by Maurice Chevalier IV, Brand Development Director at Anchor Distilling, so maybe they aren't a regular thing.

Speaking of names and especially that Schaefferstown, Pennsylvania, distillery where A. H. Hirsch Bourbon was made, I am going to stop calling it Michter's. Maybe I'll just call it by its real name when the A. H. Hirsch Bourbon was distilled there, Pennco.

Here's the thing. A company called Chatham Imports picked up the Michter's name after it was abandoned and now claims for itself all of Michter's past glory, all 260 years of it. They're playing the old marketing game of telling the literal truth while being grossly misleading.

Their latest outrage is this statement from a recent press release: "Michter’s has been distilling in Bardstown, Ky., since the 1990s, using other companies’ facilities."

Translation: Since Chatham re-registered and began to use the Michter's trademark, they have hired Bardstown's Kentucky Bourbon Distillers Inc. (KBD) to produce their Michter's products. KBD recently began to distill on a small scale but their primarily business is buying whiskey from distilleries, bottling it, and marketing it under various brand names, including names supplied by customers such as Chatham.

In other words, you didn't just buy a new Ford. You manufactured it in Detroit using other companies' facilities.

Here's the plan. Chatham did nothing wrong. They obtained the Michter's name fair and square. So, from now on, when I mention 'Michter's,' I will be talking about them. If I'm instead referring to the historic distillery in Schaefferstown, Pennsylvania, where A. H. Hirsch Bourbon was made, I'll refer to it like that. I may, at times, just shorten it to 'Schaefferstown,' even though the distillery there was never called that.

Which brings me to the third person plural. When Michter's says 'we' in reference to its activities since it grabbed the name, that's okay, but when they say 'we' in reference to anything that happened in Schaefferstown, I will call them out, because that's a lie.

13 comments:

Smithford
said...

You can add Chinaski's in Glasgow, Scotland to that list. I had some there in May. There are tons of great American whiskeys in Glasgow's many fine pubs. Last time I was there, I tasted A.H. Hirsch, Van Winkle Family Reserve Rye, Pappy 15 and 20, and Vintage Bourbon 1983 among others. Oh yeah, I think there were some scotches too. :)

The luxury resort, Blackberry Farm, in Walland, TN has a few bottles of the A.H. Hirsch 20yr that they sell by the glass if you're not afraid of dropping serious cash. I tried it next to the Pappy 23 and the Hirsch 16, and there is no comparison to any bourbon i've ever tried. sublime.